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Trust Builds From Everyday, Ordinary Miracles

Occasionally I hear from students or readers their
discouragement that they have not experienced direct Revelation or
"higher” miracles. Sometimes they think that without those experiences they
will never attain peace. But it was not those experiences that helped me to
build trust in Truth. What was helpful in building trust was the simple
practice of being open, or willing, for Truth to come into my awareness in
whatever form I needed. The simple, everyday miracles that were the result of
this practice led to my trusting Truth and finding peace.

A Revelation, as A
Course in Miracles uses the term, refers to a direct experience of Truth.
It is beyond perception and is Knowledge Itself. In this experience there is no
world; the world is not even a thought There. A Revelation reveals the end goal
of a spiritual path. If a revelatory state was sustained the world would be
over for you. So it is rare to find a spiritual seeker who has experienced
Revelation and even for those of us who have they occur very rarely.

I coined the term “higher” miracle to refer to those more
dramatic miracles where you have a shift in awareness where you know Truth to
be true and the universe of form to be not-True. Sometimes the focus of a
higher miracle is on the Truth as true and sometimes it is on the universe of
form being not-True. A higher miracle is at the level of perception, thus it is
what ACIM calls a “miracle” rather than a Revelation. It is just this side of
Knowledge; just this side of Revelation. It is the highest level of perception,
or consciousness, that one can attain. It is the consciousness of the Holy
Spirit or Christ. These are a fairly common experience among spiritual seekers
and you will experience them more often as you undo your obstacles to Truth. It
can eventually be your state of mind, but the world would not last long in your
mind once it was.

Both of these experiences fall under what ACIM calls a “Holy
Instant”. Revelation would be the ultimate Holy Instant. But as ACIM points
out, time can close over an instant. So while these experiences show you that
the Truth is true, their effect on
your conscious mind does fade.

What I call an “everyday, ordinary” miracle would be getting
an answer from the Holy Spirit, a new way of looking at something that shifts
you toward peace, a needed insight, peace that seems to descend on you out of
nowhere, etc. These, too, are Holy Instants, but they are much more mundane and
therefore more easily accepted into your day-to-day life.

The path to peace is a cumulative process so all miracles,
whether “higher” or ordinary, everyday miracles, build on each other in your
subconscious until one day you reach a tipping point and find that you trust
Truth. This is when peace comes to stay in your awareness. But the ordinary,
everyday miracles are far more consciously transformative than the more dramatic
Revelation or higher miracle. They come from the simple practice of communing
with Truth everyday with the only goal being to open to Truth. (This is the
first habit in my book 4 Habits for Inner
Peace). Nothing much may happen when you meditate and open to Truth. But later,
throughout the day, the ordinary miracles will occur. It is as though you open
a door while communing and Truth walks into your awareness in whatever form you
need throughout the day. Allowing and recognizing these everyday miracles are
how trust in Truth grows.

So don’t lament the experiences that you have not yet had.
Instead, be willing for Truth to be in your awareness here and now in whatever
form you need.

Learn about one-on-one mentoring, how to send a donation for this blog, and about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace, and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

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Comments

Christine said…

"The path to peace is a cumulative process..." Not reincarnation, because Mind is neither born nor dies...even mini-me mind neither is born nor dies...so each "life" we seem to take on still has that cumulative effect if we are open to its "progress towards peace"...

For many years when I would close my eyes in meditation and gradually let the mind quiet down, I was waiting for God to show up. That He would give me some evidence (that I could understand in my then current level of spiritual understanding) that He was there. A voice, a vision, something that I would recognize as proof of his existence. An Experience as promised! I wanted to have a feeling of security that would take away my constant fear and anxiety. In that darkness with my eyes closed I guess I wanted some sign I was special. A lot of good came of the meditation but God didn’t speak (in a metaphorical sense).This morning I was watching a Wapnick video I enjoy and I wrote down what he had to say about my time with my eyes closed trying to reach God.

“So in the Holy Instant it is not really that your personal self disappears and you leap into the heart of God, what disappears is all the tension, all the conflict, all the anxiety, all the depression, all the anger, all the judgment, all the criticism, all the specialness. That’s what disappears.”

I came to and stayed with this spiritual practice because it said it was “Experiential.” A lot was riding on MY interpretation of Experiential. When the “experiences” that I looked for didn’t show up I have had some feelings of betrayal. To find that the Holy Spirit doesn’t participate in the dream as I understood Experiential to mean…well I wasn’t happy about it. But I have come to understand that my reality with God is what it is and I follow my own path with the H

2)This line meant that once you sustained the Awareness of Truth, which would be that the world was an illusion and only the Truth is True, the world would soon fall away from your mind and only Truth would be left. What ACIM refers to as the "last step".

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something larger than a mobile).
I know it bothers some of my readers when I teach that A Course in Miracles was written
specifically to Helen and Bill in their Holy Relationship and that it is
helpful to read it through this awareness. I do not mean to take anything away
from anyone by pointing this out. Instead my intention is to help readers avoid
some of the pitfalls of guilt and misuse of ACIM into which I fell and into which
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the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in your mind) can use to teach you because
it was written first and foremost to Helen and Bill. Many spiritual teachings
are about someone’s specific experience and guidance. In fact, it is helpful in
deepening your awareness of the Holy Spirit when you have to use discernment to
sort out what was meant for another specifically and what lessons you can
generalize for yourself. This is how…

I have been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1984, a life coach since 2000, and a mentor for students of A Course in Miracles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace since 2006. You can learn more about me and what I offer at my website, www.acimmentor.com.